Thread by @sunnshiiny

It mystifies me how a reporter, obviously educated, & firmly entrenched in the middle class, complains about Liberals when his preferred party’s policies get called out for being unrealistic and potentially devastating to the economy.

https://twitter.com/andraydomise/status/1134589248869425153

He may want to remember that the middle class makes up more than half the electorate. They pay taxes, just like the working class, and yes, many have educations, much like himself, or he wouldn’t be employed.

The biggest difference is the ability to analyze policy using history & foresee the impact of implementation.

A centrist, sandwiched between both extremes on the left and right, is frequently the rational voice assuaging the disparate far fetched ideals of diehard demagogues.

The 2019 federal election is an extreme example of the confusion and divisiveness that demagoguery brings.

By appealing to visceral, and thus irrational, emotions, the demagogue throws caution to the wind to garner support.

This is also known as populism.

By no means am I denigrating the working class. I came from a long line of low income working class in Alberta.

The difference being, my parents’ and grandparents’ generations worked their asses off to make a world where I had the opportunity to move into the middle class.

They did because they wanted my life choices to be my choice, not assigned to me at birth because of my parents labour status.

They didn’t blame those who had already attained middle class status, nor denigrate those with education. They worked with them as allies.

In fact, the single most important factor enabling me to move to the middle class was my education.

My grandparents had a most difficult time. Forced to provide a 25% down payment to purchase a home, they lived at subsistence levels while saving for years.

They sent their children out to the farm to be cared for by grandparents to reduce their costs. They sent food to the farm, lived in a rooming house for 3 years, ate fried potatoes often & managed to save enough to purchase a small bungalow in the Edmonton inner city for $12,500.

My grandmother was a clothes presser at Macdonald Hotel. She pressed trousers & shirts all day using industrial equipment. A hot & sweaty dangerous job. Long hours, no breaks, unpaid lunches of 10-15 minutes. And non-union. No rights were afforded her being a Métis woman.

My grandfather was a DP (displaced person, aka WW2 refugee) from Poland. My grandmother fell in love with his piercing blue eyes and taught him English so they could communicate. He was a landowner in Poland, but a pipefitter in Canada.

Pipefitters are ditch diggers & had no rights in AB from 40’s to 60’s. They were the scourge of society. Unskilled & expendable they made subsistence wages. Socreds busted every union effort.

My grandfather worked in ditches similar to the ones he lived & fought in during WW2.

What changed were Progressive Conservatives winning the election in 1971. A conservative government changed laws and facilitated the beginnings of unionization and workers rights. When my grandfather retired, he was foreman and a union rep.

That’s what people see on the surface. A quick review and you might think Progressive Conservatives were the party of the people.

Dig deeper, to see the real truth.

Alberta is the home of the Social Credit movement in Canada. And the far right ideology it became known for.

Social Credit won a huge victory in 1935 Alberta with promises of basic income equivalents. They professed Social Credit theories, & competed with Socialist & Communists for relevance in the age of unbridled capitalism & fallout from the devastation of the Great Depression.

An Evangelical Christian version of Socialism invented by C.H. Douglas, Alberta Social Credit Party was lead by 2 prominent politicians, Bible Bill and Ernest Manning.

Basic income won votes but was dropped quickly & the real attraction for Evangelical Christians emerged.

Crypto-authoritarianism (aka crypto-fascism: an individual or group keeps support for fascism hidden to avoid political persecution or political suicide).

Elected to provide aid to the poor & indigent in the Dirty Thirties using false promises.

nationalpost.com/opinion/colby-…

Crypto-fascists/Social Credit enabled the abuse of working class & the suppression of movement to the middle class in Alberta for 36 years. Until a progressive leader and red Tory Peter Lougheed won in 1971. A Liberal in blue attire; to make voting left palatable for moderates.

A centrist who brokered the demands and needs of the working class with the businesses that employed them.

Names of parties are irrelevant. Relying on party branding is foolish. It’s the policy that matters, not the colour of the political sign.

Socreds had already coopted an ideology from within to assume power in Alberta. Within a few short years they infiltrated the Progressive Conservative government and internally manoeuvred far right policies to reverse the progressive centrist policies of Lougheed.

Every voter whose grown up in Alberta is familiar with this or should be. We’ve had one party government in Alberta for 84 years until 2015. Thank god new people moved here or we’d have never elected a progressive NDP government, short lived though, once again.

And what were the policies that won approval and an election victory for Notley? Centrist policies. Not far or moderate left, CENTRIST.

That’s right, Notley was born here. Liberals are a dead brand in Alberta, thanks to Fraser Institute indoctrination efforts & propaganda.

The only way she could get elected; offer moderate centrist policies. AB NDP are red policies in orange coats in a province overrun with crypto-fascists.

In Alberta the Liberal party is dead. And has been for a while, since they let a PC cross the floor & take over leadership.

Infiltrating and influencing from within is an AB political party feature. In a one party province, it’s the only way to get change.

After the Socreds infiltrated Lougheeds centrist party, centrists had to lay low and influence from the inside.

Do you know how many AB PC’s crossed the floor from Lib to have a voice and influence policy from within? Dozens in my lifetime.

Every Canadian needs to study Alberta politics. It will open your eyes to the 84 yr old fascist regime that is now trying to claim & control Canada.

The Socreds of AB rebranded themselves by coopting the AB PC’s. They’ve coopted PC/Tory in all provincial & federal PC parties.

There are no PC’s left. They were all expelled for their progressive beliefs & values. Joined other parties like GPC, LPC & provincial equivalents.